Lightning Fill In The Blank

Now, onto our final game, Lightning Fill In The Blank. Each of our players has sixty seconds in which to answer as many fill in the blank questions as they can. Each correct answer now worth two points. Carl, please give us the scores.

CARL KASELL, HOST:

Tom Bodett has the lead, Peter. He has four points. Faith Salie and Mo Rocca, they're tied or second. They both have two points.

SAGAL: All right. We have flipped a coin. Faith's elected to go first. Here we go. On Wednesday, the Obama administration rejected a Canadian firm's plan to build a huge blank.

FAITH SALIE: The Keystone Pipeline.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Critics of Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker filed more than a million signatures from residents who want to blank him.

SALIE: Recall him.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Thursday, the 131 year old film company blank filed for bankruptcy.

SALIE: Kodak.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: After hosting for the third time last Sunday, Ricky Gervais announced he would not host the blanks again.

SALIE: Golden Globes.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: After a three day stay in the hospital, a Bronx man almost had to be readmitted when he was presented with blank.

SALIE: A 44 million dollar bill.

SAGAL: Exactly right, it was a typo.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: In an effort to pull ahead of the competition, Burger King announced this week that they will begin blanking in some areas.

SALIE: Delivering it your way.

SAGAL: Indeed.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: For the third year in a row, the mysterious man who has been leaving a half empty bottle of cognac on blank's grave failed to appear.

SALIE: Edgar Allan Poe.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: To test their new breathalyzers, police in Florida blanked.

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

SALIE: Police in Florida got drunk.

SAGAL: Yes, they did. They spent an afternoon drinking whiskey and eating Doritos.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: The Florida Department of Law Enforcement had some fancy new Intoxilyzer 8000's and what better way to test them than by breaking out the Jim Beam and Doritos? The idea was sound. Officials say the tests did not go quite as hoped – after four or five rounds of testing, it broke down into an extended routine of good cop/naughty cop.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Carl, how did Faith do on our quiz?

KASELL: Faith had a perfect round, Peter. Faith had eight correct answers, for sixteen more points. She now has eighteen points, and she has a commanding lead.

SAGAL: Well done.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: All right, Mo, you're up next. Fill in the blank. On Monday, President Obama and his family marked blank day by volunteering for a service project.

MO ROCCA: Martin Luther King.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Monday, Jon Huntsman withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed blank.

ROCCA: Mitt Romney.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Tuesday, Jerry Yang, one of the cofounders of blank resigned from all positions at the company.

ROCCA: Yahoo.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: A bank in Germany is reevaluating its security system after police responded to alarms triggered when a blank.

ROCCA: Triggered when - something in Germany happened. They were triggered by a cuckoo clock. That's more Switzerland.

SAGAL: No, they were triggered when a spider set off the bank's motion detectors. This week the queen of southern comfort food Paula Deen announced that she has been diagnosed with blank.

ROCCA: Diabetes.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The sitcom "Modern Family" caused controversy this week with a storyline that featured a toddler blanking.

ROCCA: Cursing.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: New Zealand bird watchers had their dreams dashed after it was revealed the new species of hawk they'd discovered was actually blank.

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

ROCCA: Oh, an Australian in a costume.

SAGAL: No.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: They were actually regular hawks that had been spray painted pink.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Bird watchers in New Zealand were convinced the amazing new pinkish red hawks they had spotted were a new species. But when one of the hawks was spotted touching up his roots with a can of Rustoleum...

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: ... the gig, she was up.

ROCCA: That's terrible.

SAGAL: Carl, how did Mo do on our quiz?

KASELL: Mo had five correct answers, for ten more points. He now has twelve points, but Faith Salie still has the lead with eighteen.

SAGAL: Well done.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: All right then, how many then does Tom need to win?

KASELL: He needs seven correct answers to tie or eight to win outright.

SAGAL: All right.

TOM BODETT: Tall order.

SAGAL: Yes, but you're on your home turf.

SALIE: You can do it.

SAGAL: This is your house. This is Michigan. You can do this.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: You're like the Detroit Lions for the first half of the season. You can do it.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: This is for the game. Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers have agreed to pay damages to 37 victims of the blanking scandal.

BODETT: Phone hacking.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Because he is not on the ballot in South Carolina, this week Stephen Colbert urged voters to send a message by voting for blank.

BODETT: Oh, I forget, Herman Cain.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Standard and Poor's rankled some European leaders when it announced that it was blanking the credit ratings of nine Euro zone countries.

SAGAL: A Russian man who stole a vodka delivery truck, was not charged with car theft after he told police blank.

BODETT: That he was Russian, it was vodka, and everybody understands.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: That's what happened. He said I wasn't stealing the truck. I was stealing the vodka inside the truck.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: They said, oh.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: There was mixed reaction to the news that for the first time since 1945, Hitler's book blank will be printed in Germany.

BODETT: Mein Kampf.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: A billionaire history buff has donated 7.5 million dollars to repair the cracks that appeared in the blank after last summer's earthquake.

BODETT: The Liberty Bell.

SAGAL: The Washington Monument.

BODETT: Oh right, of course.

SAGAL: A Seattle man indiscriminately firing a pistol all over downtown calmed everyone's nerves when he explained he just needed to blank.

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

BODETT: He just needed to just get rid of some ammunition.

SAGAL: No, he just needed to test his gun. Residents called police when they spotted the man indiscriminately firing his gun at trees, the ground, at buildings and into the air. But when police stopped him, he explained he just wanted to make sure his pistol still worked. "Yep, it works," he said, just before police arrested him.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Carl, did Tom do well enough to win?

KASELL: He needed seven correct answers to tie, but Tom had six correct answers. So, with eighteen points, Faith Salie is this week's champion.

SAGAL: There you go.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)

BODETT: Well done, Faith.

SALIE: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)

SALIE: That was pure luck.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.